Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Let us talk more about gardening. I know I know. . . I'm sorry. It's a crazy obsession that's getting worse and worse.

BUT hold the phone because my WATER CALLA BLOOMED! Right in my pond! I'm so happy-- I didn't think it had the ability-- not this season at least. . and it's so purty.

And I waited alllllll spring and summer for these dahlias to finally get off their A and do something. . .

And they're these monsters! These giant purple monsters of awesome!

Gosh, I love flowers. But you know what I don't love? Watering them in September/October. What is my deal? Weeding? No problem. Dead-heading? fine. But daily watering at this point in the game?

Done. Sooo so done with it. Most my flower beds water themselves-- but I have these random areas (HELLO TOO MANY POTS) that I'm just done with. Just die already! Or live but don't need water okay?

Anyways. Back to what we're getting all up on today.

We might have over-bought on the flagstone just a little.

And you know what one does with extra pieces of flagstone? Besides another massive project involving said flagstone? (Maybe next season but don't hold your breath 'cause I'm still tired. . .)

You borrow a little handheld Ryobi tool from your Daddy-o and make your own tombstone/engraved name thingy (Actual term). Duh.

'Cause everyone has one sitting elegantly in their yard, right? And I want one!

Now, let's just stop for a second and calm down.If you are a perfectionist: don't DIY this.

Pay someone and get yourself a big freakin' huge sign and put it in your front yard for all to see. Because DIYing this isn't going to be perfect. And I'm okay with that. I'm sloppy. It's who I am. Be sloppy with me.

See what I mean? It's a Monet: from far away it's fine, but up close it's a real mess.

Have you noticed that most of these stone carving thingys are black inside? The letters, I mean? I do like that. But the Jeffro preferred it au naturel. And I'm okay with that, so I went with it. But you could definitely get a paintbrush in there and make the letters stand out.

So,

(I know how to spell my own last name, promise. This is for someone else)

this is as simple as printing out what you want on your own printer at home and taping it down. For the font freak like moi:
this font is Trajan Pro. I love Trajan Pro. It's da best.

So you tape it down, you get your little tool out with a diamond tip,

and it's soooo nice to have this plethora of various sized diamond tips -- the smaller ones we used to outline the letter, and then we'd just remove the paper and really smooth things out with a wider bit. Also, I could have moved the wet/dry vac hose and swept around this area just for the picture,

but that's not who I am. That wouldn't be authentic. And I need to be authentic.(Is there a lamer phrase than "Being authentic" right now?)

So as I said, it's not perfect, and I knew that. I planned on it sitting in a flower bed in the backyard, without any pomp and circumstance, and we love it. Do it! Try it! It's actually quite addicting to sit down and just drill right into stone. It only took a couple hours, too. Oh my heck! If I had gray flagstone. . think of all the awesome tombstones for Halloween you could make! If I had all the time in the world, that is.

Oh boy! You have the best ideas! I am going to do this. I have a suggestion after you print out your name you can use graphite paper to put it directly on the stone, or another way you could do it is to scribble over the back of the letters with pencil, tape it to your rock and go over it with a pencil again to transfer the letters. Your brain must get tired from all the great ideas you have. :)